How does one set up a unique dimension style that can be used repeatedly in many drawings and several projects in different scales without having to create it each new drawing?

Do one of the following:
Choose Settings > Dimension Settings.
On the Settings toolbar, click the Dimension Settings tool ().
Type setdim and then press Enter.
In the Dimension Settings dialog box, click New.
Type the name of the new dimension style.
Click Create.
In the Dimension Settings dialog box, click one of the other tabs, and then change the dimension settings as necessary.
Repeat this step for each tab, as needed.
To end the command, click OK.


Taken directly from the help file.

Just tried this with 6.1 PE.

It only persists in the drawing that was open when it was performed. I did it to the icad.dwg default drawing and, if I load that drawing, it persists, but if I create a new drawing, it isn't there.

Is it broken or am I missing some critical, undocumented step?

Intellicad Premium Edition v.6.1.19.0
XP Professional Edition

That's how it works, you probably wouldn't want a "new drawing from scratch" to contain all your old dimstyles. Check that "open a new drawing" is set to use your Icad.dwg as a template. You can open both dwgs and copy and paste a dimstyle across using the Explorer.

What I do is to set up a template with the dim styles, layers, ect that I generaly use and save it. You can save as many as you want set up for different purposes. That way, there is rarely a need to start from scratch and have to go through all the settings.

Purging gets you with that, I have script files for re-creating my layers but if I purge a dimstyle it's harder to get it back. That's one reason I leave all the dim defaults & just change the scale for a new style.

For mechanical engineering drawing, a number of dimstyles have to be used. They are ridgidly difined and have meaning. If I didn't have them in a template, I would have to set them up each time. Bringing those dimstyles into a drawing is quite easy. Draw some dimensions with the dimstyles you want to use in a blank drawing and wblock it to a safe place. Any time you want to set up those styles in a drawing, bring in the block then delete it. The dimstyles will stick. Works with layers too.